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Transcript for S20 Ep23

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00;00;01;14 - 00;00;25;12

Announcer

And now America's Health Care Advocate, Cary Hall. Hello, America. Welcome to America's Health Care Advocate show broadcasting coast to coast across USA. Here on the HIA Radio Network. You can learn more about us by going to the website AmericasHealthCareAdvocate.com. Also, all these shows, are video taped. Our producer, Mr. Dave Thiessen, behind the cameras, Darren Wilhite, the man behind the microphones.

00;00;25;13 - 00;00;52;08

Cary Hall

All of this is put together and posted on our YouTube channel. I think today. What do you say? We're at 450,000 454,000 views on YouTube. Thanks to all of you in the listening audience. Also 15 podcast channels as well. And Ron 238 affiliates. I want to give a shout out today to KFPW in Fort Smith, Arkansas at 1230AM broadcasting our show every Saturday morning there.

00;00;52;13 - 00;01;07;28

Cary Hall

We really appreciate them. And we're we get a lot of feedback to the folks in Arkansas, so we're happy to hear from them and let them know that we're thinking of them as well. If you do have a question or comment, you can go to the website AmericasHealthCareAdvocate.com. Send me an email. I'll be happy to answer it.

00;01;08;01 - 00;01;27;19

Cary Hall

Any questions you may have on health care or any other issue that you may want some help with, we're happy to do so. Feel free to go to the website. Well, this is the annual show. We've only missed one of these we missed last year in studio with me. Duke Dujakovich, president of the AFL CIO, and Chris Jenkins, vice president, of the AfL-CIO.

00;01;27;20 - 00;01;52;28

Cary Hall

Welcome, gentlemen. Thank you. Thank you. And we're going to do the Labor Day Car Show today. So the Labor Day Car Show, that's what this show is about. That show is done to benefit the Working Families’ Friend Fund at the AfL-CIO. We're going to talk a little bit about what that does. We're also going to go into the third segment and kind of let you folks know some of the things that the AfL-CIO does, you know, we'll talk about that when I get to the third segment.

00;01;52;28 - 00;02;03;11

Cary Hall

I'm going to hold that back for right now. So, Duke, let's just talk about how long have you been with the AfL-CIO? A little history there. And, you were a firefighter. I know that in another life.

00;02;03;12 - 00;02;26;28

Duke Dujakovich

So, originally I started out as a firefighter in Kansas City, Missouri. I did, 30 years there, and I got involved with, the firefighters union local 42. I did my career there, and then I got, elected to be president of local 3808, which is the Kansas City Fire Chiefs union. Then I became active in the AfL-CIO, still while still working.

00;02;27;01 - 00;02;42;24

Duke Dujakovich

and I became secretary treasurer there when the president left. I assumed the role of president of the AfL-CIO there. And so all in Cary, I'm really hard to say this, but I've been with the AfL-CIO for about 23 years now.

00;02;42;27 - 00;02;47;19

Cary Hall

He's been around the block once or twice folks so he understands you and Chris. How about you? What's your history?

00;02;47;20 - 00;03;12;05

Chris Jenkins

My story is a little different. I have been involved kind of indirectly with Working Families' Friend. I always tease everybody. I've been interviewing for this job for the last 20 years. when this organization started, roughly 20 years ago, I was at the first event. I've been at probably 18 of the 20 some events, as a volunteer, from golf tournaments to casino nights to dinners to, wherever they needed me.

00;03;12;05 - 00;03;25;25

Chris Jenkins

And in the last year, an opportunity came along. They offered me the position. I was. Yes, finally, I will do it. I've only been waiting 20 years. What took you so long? And we are here. And we've been happy ever since. I've. I've loved it every day.

00;03;25;26 - 00;03;26;10

Cary Hall

It's good.

00;03;26;11 - 00;03;33;18

Duke Dujakovich

We are really happy to have Chris. He's been a wonderful addition. And, you know, it's it's great. And I'm really looking forward to the future now.

00;03;33;24 - 00;03;53;25

Cary Hall

Well, let's talk a little bit about the show. the car show that's going to be Saturday. out of the Azura Amphitheater. Some of you remember that was what was it called, the Sandstone. What? It was. There you go. When it was Sandstone, it's now the Azura Amphitheater. So you all know where it is on the Kansas City, Kansas side, that starts Saturday at 9:00.

00;03;53;26 - 00;04;10;29

Cary Hall

So if you've got a car, if you're in a motorcycle, if you just want to come out and look at all the great cars and trucks and motorcycles they're going to have out there on display. it's a great place to go. There's going to be food trucks again this year, I bet. Absolutely. Yeah. Food trucks out there this year, and there'll be music and a lot of things going on.

00;04;10;29 - 00;04;25;11

Cary Hall

It's a lot of fun. I've done that show probably every year with Ron Rowe, who is now in Omaha, so he won't be there. But, the folks at Blue Cross and Blue Shield are sponsoring, as they always do. And that's why we're doing the radio show today. So talk a little about the show, the history of it.

00;04;25;11 - 00;04;27;15

Cary Hall

And we've had a lot of fun out there. Duke. Hey. Yeah.

00;04;27;15 - 00;04;50;08

Duke Dujakovich

We have. So, this idea came up about I'm thinking like four years ago, like everybody else from suffering from Covid math, you know, that time out kind of really messed this up. So if we had three shows in the last four years or four in the last five years. Yeah, I'm not exactly sure, but, you know, we sponsor the concert series, the AfL-CIO sponsors a concert series out at, Azura

00;04;50;11 - 00;05;10;01

Duke Dujakovich

And, since we do that, we get access to the lot to have this fundraiser. and speaking of the name, so my grandmother always called Truman Road, 15th Street, because that was what it was before there was a President Truman and so now you can tell people's age if they call Azura Amphitheater, Sandstone.

00;05;10;02 - 00;05;12;06

Cary Hall

You look at me when can say that? So yeah.

00;05;12;06 - 00;05;30;01

Duke Dujakovich

Oh we tell so yeah, we've been doing it for a while. It's raised our money, it raises money for our charity and it is fantastic. And it lets the members, rank and file members get together and show off their passion. You know, if if you built a hot rod, if you've done it in your garage over five years, you want to get it out.

00;05;30;03 - 00;05;35;00

Duke Dujakovich

You want to show people what your what you're capable of. There's a lot of talent, amazing talent out there.

00;05;35;01 - 00;05;58;05

Cary Hall

We saw we saw some some of the cars. We saw that, you know, the last year when we were there was just it was amazing to me. I mean, there were there was everything from, from, you know, trucks to cars to motorcycles, you name it, and custom rods, you know, newer models. There were electric cars out there that we saw Tesla plaids, I mean, so it's really it's a great variety.

00;05;58;05 - 00;06;05;19

Cary Hall

It's a lot of fun, great people, a lot of fun to go out there, talk a little about the food trucks and all the goodies that are out there. Oh, yeah.

00;06;05;19 - 00;06;22;27

Duke Dujakovich

Well, so the, the, we do have supposedly, and we can't guarantee what's, who's going to show up because it is, pretty much wide open, but there is going to be an ice cream truck and we have champs burritos coming again and a couple others there that will be there.

00;06;22;27 - 00;06;44;04

Cary Hall

So it's always a big hit, and I'm certain that ice cream will be in high demand. Yeah, yeah yeah yeah. So so Chris, let's talk just a little bit about before we go to break here, a little bit about the Working Families' Friend Fund and you know, who you help working people.

00;06;44;06 - 00;06;59;26

Chris Jenkins

this fund was created. And like I said, in the last 20 years that I've been processing and we're trying to get through this process, what I've realized, what I see is, is that a lot of people have scrapes, or one of them is, say, a bump along the way, not a major, major problem that happen in their life.

00;06;59;26 - 00;07;22;16

Chris Jenkins

But sometimes a car battery or bat or tire went bad, or even just little things that most a lot of people just think of. I'll just go buy another battery. You wouldn't understand or even believe how many people that affects their life, how just how to get to work that day. So what we are able to do a lot of times within the last month, I bought a bicycle for a guy because he wanted to get a work to get to work.

00;07;22;16 - 00;07;33;01

Chris Jenkins

This was his opportunity to get there. So a lot of times we're saving people's opportunity to keep their job, to keep their life on track for lack, you know, for lack of a better way of putting it, quite honestly.

00;07;33;03 - 00;07;49;29

Cary Hall

Yeah. And unfortunately, you know, we're not at a time right now where, you know, people have a lot of excess cash to spend. I mean, if you take a look at where we're at in the markets and where we're at, you know, with inflation and all the rest of it, you've got folks struggling out there living paycheck to paycheck, and it doesn't take much.

00;07;50;02 - 00;08;05;02

Cary Hall

You know, like you just said, Chris, to knock them down. And then and then, you know, the key to what you just said, there was kind of we'll talk more about this. We come back in the break. But the key to this, I think, was when you talked about giving these people, you're giving them a hand up, not a handout.

00;08;05;02 - 00;08;21;15

Chris Jenkins

That's correct. That that's exactly right. And and it's just it's rewarding on both sides. A lot of times I run into these people, I meet these people just on the fluke sometimes and they will say, hey, thank you for the help or you helped our family. We had a funeral that no, we didn't have. We didn't have a way to get this done.

00;08;21;22 - 00;08;32;06

Chris Jenkins

And you guys were able to get us through, you know, we'll work together with Duke. Duke to work together with us. We'll find a way, if, you know, to get this thing done for people. So I feel good about it every day when I leave.

00;08;32;08 - 00;08;51;28

Cary Hall

Yeah. You should. It's a great program. And as you said, it helps working folks. You know, once again, it is Saturday at 9:00. If you want to go out to the show, look at the beautiful cars out there, trucks, motorcycles. If you've got one you want to bring, come on out. They'd love to have you. so feel free to come out and display your car, your truck or motorcycle, whatever the case may be.

00;08;52;04 - 00;09;10;20

Cary Hall

It's Saturday at Azura Amphitheater over in Kansas City, Kansas. We'll be back after the break. You're listening to America's Health Care Advocate broadcasting here on the HIA Radio Network. Coast to coast Cross, USA. Stay right there. We've got more.

00;09;10;22 - 00;09;40;23

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00;09;40;28 - 00;10;16;18

Steve Kuker

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00;10;16;20 - 00;10;35;28

Cary Hall

Welcome back. You're listening to America's Health Care Advocate show broadcasting coast to coast across the USA. My producer today, Mr. Darren Wilhite. Mr.. Dave Thiessen putting this all together for you out there. Again, we're posted up on the YouTube channel 15 podcast channels. And obviously, if you're listening to us on the radio, we're happy that you are in studio with me.

00;10;35;28 - 00;10;56;04

Cary Hall

Duke Dijakovic, he is the president of the AFL CIO, and Chris Jenkins, he's the vice president of AFL CIO. We're talking about the annual Labor Day Car Show. It's really not on Labor Day. We just call it that. Okay. So yeah, so we have a before Labor Day. But it is this Saturday out at the Azura Amphitheater starts at 9:00.

00;10;56;04 - 00;11;08;29

Cary Hall

The gates open. if you've got a car or truck, a hot rod you'd like to come out and display, they'd be happy to have you. If you just want to come out and have a good time, bring the kids, get some ice cream. They're going to have burrito truck they had. They'll be 2 or 3 other trucks out there.

00;11;08;29 - 00;11;40;13

Cary Hall

They just don't know who's coming yet. So there'll be plenty of food trucks out there. and lots to do. There'll be music and fun. It's just a good time. It's a great opportunity to just come out and see some folks and meet some folks that are, hard working folks or whatever, CIO. So, Chris, let's talk a little bit about, you know, examples of some of the folks that you've helped because I think people lose sight of this sometimes, you know, you know, there are folks who are out there going to work every day, but they have something happened in their lives, and they don't have extra cash to take care of it.

00;11;40;19 - 00;11;45;00

Cary Hall

And they may not have any place to turn. So tell us, give us a couple examples.

00;11;45;02 - 00;12;04;24

Chris Jenkins

one that just recently happened and this one really, really knocked my it knocked my wheel off. A lady, you know, working like she does, bought a house, moved in with her family, got there. Everything was great. She's away on business. While she's away on business, her son has run over. She's out of town. There's really.

00;12;04;24 - 00;12;24;03

Chris Jenkins

You know, her husband's got the ball, but he's got it. Well, in the meantime, prior two weeks to that, her daughter had had emergency surgery. So she's got two balls up in the air right now. And then as, hearing the news of all this stuff going on, she's out of town. She has a stroke, and so she is trapped out of town.

00;12;24;03 - 00;12;42;01

Chris Jenkins

She's got a son who's got a broke arm and a daughter who is in need right now. So what we were able to do, she had a utility that was way behind there, about to get cut off, turn off. And the feeling that went through the room and the feeling that went through me when we talked about it in the office, was, it's got to be today.

00;12;42;01 - 00;13;01;28

Chris Jenkins

We've got to get an answer. This has got to be a today or right now answer. And we were able to help her. She called back, text back. Hey, thank you again. You don't know what it's like to have. No I said no. We everybody in this office knows what it's like. We have all I think that's kind of what we like about each other in this office, is that we've all been there.

00;13;01;28 - 00;13;26;01

Chris Jenkins

Whenever you. Why don't I have it? I'm working 40 hours a week. I'm sometimes even doing overtime, and I just don't have it. And I'm not talking about the cable bill. I'm not talking about them. I'm not talking about the membership of society. I'm talking about life. I'm talking about, you know, how come I don't have electricity? Why am I trying to manage my thermostat like I am and I'm working 40, 50 hours a week, so we're able to we were able to help that lady.

00;13;26;01 - 00;13;44;07

Chris Jenkins

And then, you know, another case where just things happen that you don't even think about a lady we deal with, or a dealt with. Her water was running, her toilet was running. She never thought anything about it. She was deaf. Yeah. And. Well, yeah, I've got. Sorry. Yeah. Somebody, came over to visit an old lady friend came over and said, hey, you know, your toilet run.

00;13;44;09 - 00;14;00;27

Chris Jenkins

And she said, no, I didn't know. and then jiggled the handle and it turned itself off. No big deal. Well, two and a half weeks later, when at $600 water bill shows up, you know, it scared her. And she called our utility company, and the utility company said we were. Well, it's $600 worth of water. You got to pay for it.

00;14;00;29 - 00;14;14;09

Chris Jenkins

She explained to them she was deaf in one ear. She explained to them that she was a schoolteacher. She explained to them that this would almost bankrupt her and you owe us $600 for water. We were able to get in the middle of that and get that down to less than $100.

00;14;14;11 - 00;14;30;16

Cary Hall

I said, this is the thing. You guys are advocates for these people when they don't have a voice someplace, right? When they don't have somebody they can turn to, you know, fear comes in, you don't know, what am I going to do? Who do I talk to when I get these kind of calls all the time from people on the health side.

00;14;30;21 - 00;14;39;02

Cary Hall

But you're doing this for people in everyday life. That's part of what this union brings to their members and and their families, right?

00;14;39;05 - 00;14;59;09

Duke Dujakovich

Yeah. I had an electrician call me up at 9:00 at night, okay. And he went he had a very simple question. He said, hey, I got, jury duty. And I said, oh, okay. And he said, I'm working seven, 12 hour days and I'm out of town. It's it's about as high A to Z way out. He's way out on a job.

00;14;59;10 - 00;15;19;29

Duke Dujakovich

Right? They're doing seven, 12 hour days. And he said, I'm supposed to call this number. I don't have cell service at that. Where that is. And he said, so the question I have is how long do I have before they come arrest me? Oh, whoa whoa whoa. He said, no, no, this job go there. Yeah, yeah yeah, I said it's I said it's a subpoena.

00;15;19;29 - 00;15;36;18

Duke Dujakovich

And they, you know. And so he's like, how long do I have until this happens? And I said that's it's not going to happen like that. But we can we can have somebody call for you and get this taken care of and do all that. And he said, you don't understand this job is the difference between my daughter going to college and community college.

00;15;36;24 - 00;15;55;17

Duke Dujakovich

So it's real. And all it took was a phone call, somebody to be able to get on the phone for 90 minutes, explain the situation, don't delay it. You know, deferring. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But but somebody's got to spend that time so. So yeah it's not always it's not always that they need something. They just sometimes need something done.

00;15;55;19 - 00;16;09;24

Cary Hall

Said to that point. You know he's an electrician who was sent to a job out of town. If he's going to work seven, 12 hour days based on what electricians get paid, right, he's going to make a lot of money.

00;16;09;24 - 00;16;10;12

Duke Dujakovich

He's got the money.

00;16;10;12 - 00;16;16;24

Cary Hall

Yeah. So that that was the issue was he doesn't know how to deal with this, but he had someplace to turn.

00;16;16;27 - 00;16;17;11

Duke Dujakovich

Exactly.

00;16;17;11 - 00;16;35;06

Cary Hall

You guys are a resource for people, to help people in those situations. Not just monetarily. Right, but in a situation like this. Yeah. Being able to get on, get on the phone to whoever at the court system and try to get them to understand this man is not trying to dodge it. He's out of town. He's got to make this money.

00;16;35;09 - 00;16;36;10

Cary Hall

Right. So yeah.

00;16;36;10 - 00;17;00;11

Duke Dujakovich

So on the way over here, we had a phone call came in, right. So, young lady said that her father in law had a cardiac issue and was, hospitalized. He's in the hospital, right. His wife then had a medical issue, and she had a reaction to the pain medicine that they had given her. And so she needed to be hospitalized, too.

00;17;00;14 - 00;17;13;08

Duke Dujakovich

And for those of you who don't know, tomorrow is election day. Yeah. And so their question was, how can we get an absentee ballot when we're in the hospital? And so we had to deal with that, Chris and I, Chris and I dealt with that in the parking.

00;17;13;08 - 00;17;14;22

Chris Jenkins

Lot things you never think about.

00;17;14;26 - 00;17;15;20

Duke Dujakovich

That.

00;17;15;22 - 00;17;18;21

Cary Hall

I, I never that that I would never have.

00;17;18;24 - 00;17;19;09

Chris Jenkins

You up at.

00;17;19;12 - 00;17;20;25

Cary Hall

One time. Yeah, yeah.

00;17;20;28 - 00;17;21;22

Duke Dujakovich

Yeah.

00;17;21;24 - 00;17;29;29

Cary Hall

That I would have said those are some pretty conscientious voters there. If they're going to be hospitalized, wanted to know how they're going to get an absentee ballot. That's pretty impressive.

00;17;29;29 - 00;17;37;10

Duke Dujakovich

Absolutly are and it's a primary election. And so a lot of people aren't real eager to vote. But we don't want to say don't vote.

00;17;37;10 - 00;17;49;29

Cary Hall

Yeah. No it's primary election and you need to vote, period. Okay. So so how many people in the AfL-CIO and talked about we're going to go to break here in about a minute, but just a little bit about how many folks are in the union here in the Kansas City metro.

00;17;49;29 - 00;18;14;23

Duke Dujakovich

Do Kansas City has really strong union density, more so than a lot of other places geographically where we are located. we the largest employer here in the area is the federal government. And as such, all of those are in the union. We have two automotive manufacturing plants here. We've got a General Motors plant in Fairfax. We have the largest Ford plant in the world by volume of vehicles produced.

00;18;14;24 - 00;18;17;10

Cary Hall

I did not know that that was the largest Ford plant in the world.

00;18;17;10 - 00;18;37;04

Duke Dujakovich

The volume by by number of vehicles produced, they produce the F-150, right. The most popular truck for 30 whatever years. Yes. And the transit vans. So yeah, they've got two lines rolling. Let's go. Right. So yeah. So the upshot is where most of the country will run at about 12, 15%. We're about 20% in this area.

00;18;37;09 - 00;18;52;08

Cary Hall

That's remarkable. they do a lot of good folks. It's the AFL CIO, the the, Labor Day Car Show is this Saturday at 9:00 at Azura Amphitheater. If you want to go out there and have a good time, take your car, just go out and walk around, meet the folks, see some great rides. It's a lot of fun to do.

00;18;52;09 - 00;19;11;08

Cary Hall

We'll be right back after the break. You're listening to America's Health Care Advocate Broadcasting here on the HIA Radio Network. Coast to coast across the USA. Don't go anywhere. We've got more.

00;19;11;10 - 00;19;30;00

Cary Hall

Welcome back. You're listening to America's Health Care Advocate show, broadcasting coast to coast across the USA. Here on the HIA Radio Network. You can find out more about us by going to the website AmericasHealthCareAdvocate.com. If you have a question, if I can help you with something regarding health care health insurance, please feel free to reach out to me.

00;19;30;07 - 00;19;52;06

Cary Hall

I'm happy to help you any way that I can. All right. Joining me in studio today, Duke Dijakovic. He is the president of the AFL CIO. And Chris Jenkins, he's the vice president, AFL-CIO. This is our annual show that we do around their Labor Day Car Show, which is actually the Saturday. It's not on Labor Day. And if you want to go out and have a good time, just want something to do on a Saturday, be a lot of fun.

00;19;52;08 - 00;20;08;13

Cary Hall

Go out to the Azura Amphitheater. The gates open at 9:00. There'll be a lot of cars. If you've got a car, if you've got a bike, if you've got a truck, it's that's a resto mod or a hot rod. Whatever the case may be, feel free to go out. We said there were there were electric cars out there last year.

00;20;08;13 - 00;20;22;16

Cary Hall

I mean some of the some of the displays out there of the electric cars is like these things are actually getting kind of a foothold here. Yeah. So we had a lot of it was a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. Every year there's food trucks out there, ice cream, burritos. There'll be more. So there's plenty of stuff to do.

00;20;22;17 - 00;20;57;10

Cary Hall

Music. Just a good time. So once again, it's at 9:00 this Saturday at the Azura Amphitheater. If you want to go out, feel free to do so. So let's let's shift gears here. I read an article and told you this for you came up on air, in the Wall Street Journal the other day, and it was an article comparing the, what college graduates could make versus what kids that were not college graduates who had gone into apprentice programs where their in an apprentice program for a year or two years, going to some of these technical schools or just becoming an apprentice.

00;20;57;12 - 00;21;17;04

Cary Hall

50% of the kids that are that are in college don't make as much as the men and women who go out into the trades. And it was funny because that this jobs report that just came out last week, that's got everybody pretty upset right now, the one area of the country where there was significant growth was in construction jobs.

00;21;17;07 - 00;21;32;16

Cary Hall

Right? So I want what I want you to do too, because just talk about all of the programs that you guys have available out there for kids. Come in at a high school. I told you the story off here. I've got a good friend is in my Bible study group. I don't know what I'm like. My my son doesn't want to go to school.

00;21;32;16 - 00;21;49;13

Cary Hall

What is he going to do? I took that article out of the paper and I brought it to him. And I said, you know, the AfL-CIO has got some great programs. You really need to have him take a look at this, but talk about the apprenticeship program. So what they do and where there's an opportunity and unfulfilled opportunity actually, right now.

00;21;49;15 - 00;22;06;29

Duke Dujakovich

You know, it's it's it continues to amaze me. what I think was it was a disservice that was done to this country back when I was in high school when we were told, listen, if you don't go to college, you're going to wind up digging a ditch. Well, I got news for you. The guy digging the ditch, his boat matches his truck.

00;22;07;06 - 00;22;09;29

Duke Dujakovich

They were painted the same color.

00;22;10;01 - 00;22;14;25

Cary Hall

And he's making $18 an hour to start out. They know that because they put a young man in that program.

00;22;14;25 - 00;22;32;21

Duke Dujakovich

Correct? It was $18 an hour a couple of years ago. I think it's up to 21 now. But the other couple of things that most people don't realize, and you especially don't realize it when you're young, but when you get to be my age, you realize that pensions and health care and all of those things are critically important.

00;22;32;24 - 00;22;48;07

Duke Dujakovich

There's one more thing is that when you start making $22 an hour with those benefits kicking in and you don't have any student debt, we pay you to learn this. And, you know, Chris has got a really unique perspective on this because, of his family.

00;22;48;07 - 00;23;09;29

Chris Jenkins

Correct? Correct. Ma'am, I tell everybody and, back in the 80s, I went to Schlagle High School, USD 500, Kansas City, Kansas. My mother, which is such a bad idea. They made her the high school counselor there while I was there. Not a fun ride, but in the 80s, what they wanted kids to do was take your act sat and let's see how we can get you in an engineering program.

00;23;10;01 - 00;23;26;04

Chris Jenkins

Everybody they wanted, they believed, should be an engineer. And if you're not going to be an engineer, then why bother? The feeling for a kid in the 80s and even the early 90s, when it all switched from engineering to kind of what they called computer science back then. Now there, you probably couldn't even get a computer science degree.

00;23;26;04 - 00;23;49;22

Chris Jenkins

Now it's all a different kind of animal. What we have learned for I have learned and even tried to communicate to a lot of kids, and we're using the word kid coming out of high school, and I call anybody under 30 a kid. These opportunities are still available to a 22, 24, 25 year old kid because now he's got work experience and he understands the value of this union.

00;23;49;22 - 00;24;07;08

Chris Jenkins

He understands the the idea of being in a place where the this industry is always going to go. It's always going to grow. There's always going to be buildings coming up. There's always going to be buildings coming down. They're always going to need pipes are always going to need water. The guy was going to the electricity. That is what I always try to tell people.

00;24;07;08 - 00;24;22;10

Chris Jenkins

And we're trying to work with some, with Duke and some of the labor leaders here in Kansas City on how to put together kind of like a, you know, we had college back to school night when we were kids. Yeah. Now we're trying to do a skilled trades night at some of the different schools here in the community to give those kids an opportunity.

00;24;22;10 - 00;24;40;11

Chris Jenkins

I look, I mean, nobody even knew how to do these things back when we were kids. How do you get Ahold of it now? The internet is exposed. All this. My cousin was a pipefitter from the 70s. He had to write letters back in 72 to figure out how to become a pipefitter. Now you just go online. We are talking 50 years later, but still.

00;24;40;14 - 00;24;41;12

Chris Jenkins

Yeah, it's out there.

00;24;41;16 - 00;24;57;27

Cary Hall

And so talk a little bit about that. How do they get so parents hearing this. Yeah. This man my son, he's pretty good with his hands. He's pretty good. He's pretty good garage mechanic. you know he could do that talking about how to me how do the Chris just mentioned. How do they find out? Where do they go to get this information?

00;24;57;27 - 00;25;23;09

Duke Dujakovich

We have a very, very diverse, world of unions. Yes. If you look at just who is affiliated with the Kansas City AfL-CIO, right. We have the United Auto Workers, like we talked about. We have the construction workers, bricklayers, roofers, glaziers, all with all of those. Right. And then we also have like three unions that handle delivering the mail.

00;25;23;11 - 00;25;38;27

Duke Dujakovich

It takes three unions to handle that. If you think about it, you got the letter carrier, the one that actually comes and puts the mail in the mailbox, right? Then you've got the postal clerk that is in the post office that operates there, and then you have the bulk mail handlers that move the large amounts of mail that are out there.

00;25;38;29 - 00;25;56;04

Duke Dujakovich

So, I mean, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey are members of my organization through the NFL Players Association. If you watch a football game, if you watch an NFL game at Kansas City, right, everybody you see who is working there is in a union, with the exception of the cheerleaders, they're not know.

00;25;56;06 - 00;25;57;28

Cary Hall

They're probably working on getting the players.

00;25;57;28 - 00;26;16;27

Duke Dujakovich

And the concession to the people who do the maintenance of the stadiums. They're all in a union. So you got to really research that, you know, and it's it's it's not as easy as it sounds because my son was an oiler. Okay. Well, if you don't know what an oiler is or no one in your family was an oil, you're probably not going to be that.

00;26;16;27 - 00;26;22;18

Duke Dujakovich

That's the person who maintains the crane. It's also the first step to being able to operate Crane.

00;26;22;18 - 00;26;23;14

Cary Hall

Your son operates.

00;26;23;14 - 00;26;25;13

Duke Dujakovich

He's an operator now. He operates trains.

00;26;25;13 - 00;26;29;04

Cary Hall

But I'm just curious. What is he making our operating Crane. Oh. What?

00;26;29;10 - 00;26;46;07

Duke Dujakovich

Oh, what? So, you know, there's two different ways they talk about it. They talk about what they make and what's on the check. And so what you make is all of your benefits added in there. So sick leave vacation, your health care, your pension, all of that added in there. Right. But on the check, what you're actually taking home is $35 an hour.

00;26;46;09 - 00;27;07;09

Cary Hall

That's unbelievable, isn't it? How do you like that? That that's probably more you're going to get with a degree in, social economics or DIE or some of these other degrees these kids are getting, coming out of school to try to find a job that fits that role. You know, that that's what we're talking about. You know, a labor in the labor in the union starts out now at $20 an hour.

00;27;07;15 - 00;27;23;04

Cary Hall

If you're if you're, you know, a young kid coming out of high school, just like Duke said, he's the guy driving a truck with the matching boat, and they're painted both the same color. Okay, so the point in telling you all this is because is there's a resource out there for these kids that don't want to go to college.

00;27;23;04 - 00;27;37;09

Cary Hall

They don't feel like it's where they're going to fit in. They don't like it. They're not ‘book’ kids. They not that they have no interest in it. Then this is an opportunity with AFL CIO. There are apprenticeship programs for plumbers, for carpenters, for electricians. I mean, go down the list, Duke.

00;27;37;09 - 00;28;01;06

Duke Dujakovich

Oh yeah, go to all of them. So, you know, ironworkers, painters, roofers, they've all got opportunities. The bricklayers, the biggest, the biggest hurdle for most people is math, because you are going to need math in every one of these trades. And that is the number one thing. Look, I said a lot of times I said there's stuff that I learned in high school that I didn't need.

00;28;01;08 - 00;28;24;06

Duke Dujakovich

Well, I can guarantee you I was right about art history. I've never needed that. Okay. But math, you need that every day. And everything is built with math. And so the math skills are one of the biggest hurdles. So I encourage anybody who's thinking about going into any of this to brush up, maybe even take a community college course on it, just to get the skills up to be able to do that.

00;28;24;06 - 00;28;28;05

Duke Dujakovich

Because there's a competitive side to this. We do need people desperately.

00;28;28;05 - 00;28;28;26

Cary Hall

I know you do, but.

00;28;28;26 - 00;28;47;19

Duke Dujakovich

But, but there's a bar, there's a bar they've got to pass, you know, and, and so, but every one of the trades is, is moving in the same direction and hiring right now. And we've got a lot of work in the pipeline. It's going to be a while before we catch up with everything that's been funded already.

00;28;47;22 - 00;29;00;24

Duke Dujakovich

and then there's also the desperate need for firefighters and paramedics. Those are that's a about a 20 month class. You take that, you get registered, you can come out, get hired and make about 67,000.

00;29;00;27 - 00;29;22;26

Cary Hall

There you go. And guess what? Just like Duke said earlier, no college debt. So there are some tremendous opportunities out there. And that's why I suggested that Duke go through this today, so you can look at those resources go up online. AfL-CIO, they can direct you from there and find out what's available out there. If you've got a son or daughter that's not going to go to college, you're looking for an opportunity.

00;29;22;26 - 00;29;37;22

Cary Hall

That's it. Stay tuned. We'll be right back after the break. You're listening to America's Health Care Advocate Broadcasting here on the HIA radio network. Coast to coast across the USA. We've got more. Stay there.

00;29;37;24 - 00;29;58;15

Cary Hall

Welcome back. You're listening to America's Health Care Advocates Show broadcasting coast to coast across the USA. Remember what I said? All these shows are on the podcast platforms. There are 15 of them. Spotify, SoundCloud, you name it, we're on it. Okay. and they are posted on the YouTube channel, over 457,000 views. Thanks to all of you out there in the audience.

00;29;58;15 - 00;30;27;06

Cary Hall

We appreciate you and that all of you listening across the country on terrestrial radio, we appreciate you as well. Like KFPW in Fort Smith, Arkansas, 1230AM broadcasting our show every Saturday morning. We appreciate those folks up in Arkansas broadcasting America's Health Care Advocate. This is the annual Labor Day Car Show show about the show the AfL-CIO puts on every year at Azura Amphitheater gates open at 9:00 to Saturday.

00;30;27;06 - 00;30;56;03

Cary Hall

If you want to have some fun, go up, see some great cars, trucks, motorcycles. It's a lot of fun. Food trucks, ice cream, burritos, all kinds of things going on up there in studio with me. Duke Dijakovic, he is the president of the AFL CIO, and Chris Jenkins, he is the vice president, AfL-CIO. Let's kind of keep that theme a little bit, Chris, about the opportunities that are available for these young folks that are looking for a chance to, you know, to find a good job and not go into college and go to that because they're really not interested in.

00;30;56;04 - 00;31;14;02

Chris Jenkins

Well, and and, it's funny you said the “going in debt” part. When we were on commercial break, I got to thinking about my, Sallie Mae payment whenever I was completed with my school. And I think it took me ten years to pay that off. And everybody in the office used to tease me that you could have, you know, you could have went to work instead of going, trying to live a real job.

00;31;14;03 - 00;31;31;20

Chris Jenkins

You kind of went to work. Yeah. Instead of trying to be Spicoli at Fast Times at Ridgemont High or KU High. But, I like for people, I mean, nowadays everybody has a phone. It used to be if you didn't have the internet, you know, you had to go to the library once, go to library. So now everybody has all these answers on their phone.

00;31;31;20 - 00;31;51;20

Chris Jenkins

And we were kind of talking about every local is kind of different. Our community here, I know in Kansas City, Kansas alone, I just found this out in the last six months that there are 56 different languages in the school system. I didn't know there were 56 languages on the planet Earth. So with that being said, there are ways to get to us, and we can get to you.

00;31;51;20 - 00;32;08;21

Chris Jenkins

Is an opportunity to come here and and do something with your life and do something where you can give back and help somebody else. Duke, that I know. That's one of his things. He's always looking backwards. I'm trying to get better about looking backwards. And one of the things we're trying to do is introduce these ideas, these concepts to these schools right here in Kansas City.

00;32;08;23 - 00;32;21;26

Cary Hall

And so, you know, this is interesting. I remember the last time we do one of these shows, there's a big data center going in by the airport. Yes. What did you tell me? The demand for electricians was for that center. I remember distinctly about fell out of my shoes a year ago.

00;32;21;26 - 00;32;31;07

Duke Dujakovich

We needed 500 electricians, was projected with that data center and all the other construction that was going on. And I think we still need 500. I mean, it's amazing.

00;32;31;10 - 00;32;50;28

Cary Hall

So number so there's there's a skill and I talked I've got a young man that I sent to you guys to the Electrical Union as well. Right. There's a skill fair. They do require math. Yes. There's there's, there's, there's a there's a bar there. But talk about what it is to apprentice as electrician. I used to do another radio show called Muscle Cars on the radio.

00;32;50;28 - 00;33;06;19

Cary Hall

And I had a guy named Dave Gurkee who is a master electrician. He did that show with me. They made a ridiculous amount of money. Yes, he was a master electrician. But just talk about what that's like. That's a they go into a program, they get accepted and then what's it like for them.

00;33;06;19 - 00;33;25;02

Duke Dujakovich

So they go into the apprenticeship program. Once they're in there, then they start with some basic school work that they're going to have to do to be able to get out on the job. And so there's OSHA training for safety reasons. So they have to have that. They need electrical safety training too. So it's going to be, you know, just going to be dangerous on day one.

00;33;25;02 - 00;33;46;08

Duke Dujakovich

But you need to know what you're going into. and then they actually go to work. They work with an electrical contractor with a and journey person, and they're on a job. They learn all kinds of skills that are there. They learn what the tools are. They carry, they do what they can, but they're learning as they're going along and they're watching.

00;33;46;10 - 00;34;10;18

Duke Dujakovich

And, then they go to school. Some of the unions go two days a month, some go nights, evening schools. But there they learn how to bend conduit, how to do the math, how to measure, how to make all those things work. And they continue as they continue to get, more seniority. So your second year, you're pay goes up, third year your pay goes up.

00;34;10;18 - 00;34;14;29

Duke Dujakovich

It continues that way until you graduate, you turn out and you become a journeyman.

00;34;15;04 - 00;34;16;16

Cary Hall

And that takes how long the process.

00;34;16;23 - 00;34;20;10

Duke Dujakovich

Five years in IBEW 124 I believe it takes five years.

00;34;20;10 - 00;34;27;18

Cary Hall

Yeah. It's a but but but you're not running up any debt. You're getting paid. Well what do they start a man just a ballpark.

00;34;27;19 - 00;34;32;16

Duke Dujakovich

Oh I ballpark you know I think they probably start him at about 22 an hour maybe 23.

00;34;32;16 - 00;34;48;11

Cary Hall

You get him. He's 22, $23 an hour. Plus you're getting your health insurance for retirement for a one day pension, all the rest of it. I mean, think about that a little bit, okay. With the path in front of them where, they're going to make a lot of money if they become an electrician once they're a licensed electrician.

00;34;48;13 - 00;35;09;10

Cary Hall

And then the next step, they become a master electrician as time goes on. it is remarkable the salaries they make. It's rewarding. Career. You know, again, you need math. So if you've got a young man or a young woman, in your family who's pretty good at math, maybe they don't address a lot of other things. This may be this may be an opportunity for you, but that's that's just one example.

00;35;09;11 - 00;35;23;20

Duke Dujakovich

One example. And, you know, and there's another thing that, that I've kind of been working on, I don't know if it's ever going to go anywhere or not. So I have a GED, right. But you can't, it’s not called a GED anymore in the state of Missouri because that's the trademark name for the company that used to do it and a new company.

00;35;23;20 - 00;35;40;14

Duke Dujakovich

Does it now. So a GED is not it's not a government thing. It's not a Department of Education thing. And so I started looking up the law. What to what what allows you to say that you graduated high school in the state of Missouri and or a couple of things. First is four years in a chair, right. That's number one.

00;35;40;14 - 00;36;00;14

Duke Dujakovich

We all know. Number two is to take the military equivalency exam that doesn't even exist anymore, but it's still on the books in the law. and the other one is the high stat equivalency program. And taking passed that test. And there's another little pause there. It says, or anything else we say, okay, well, let's, let's, let's explore that in a minute.

00;36;00;16 - 00;36;17;22

Duke Dujakovich

What if we say, if you get your class a CDL, you can say you graduated. What if we say if you get your emergency medical technicians license that you graduated, or if you get your OSHA 40, your safety class that you graduate, I guarantee you you do any one of those. That's harder than the equivalency test.

00;36;17;23 - 00;36;19;06

Cary Hall

Oh, I can only imagine. Yes.

00;36;19;11 - 00;36;27;17

Duke Dujakovich

Yeah, exactly. And the list could be I mean, you could really make this work, and then you could start teaching kids so that everybody graduates with remarkable job skill.

00;36;27;20 - 00;36;43;20

Cary Hall

And that's, that's that's really what this is why I've asked to come in here, obviously, about the Labor Day Car Show, which is why we're doing this today. But I want I really think it's important for them to explain what's out there. If you've got kids looking for an opportunity, they're coming out of high school. This is a great way to do it.

00;36;43;23 - 00;37;00;23

Cary Hall

go up on the AfL-CIO website. There's a lot of information there. Direct you in the right way if you want to have a good time this Saturday, the Labor Day Car Show, AfL-CIO, is it as your amphitheater? It starts at 9:00 on Saturday morning. The gates open. There are food trucks out there. Music out there. You'll have a great time.

00;37;00;23 - 00;37;21;22

Cary Hall

Go enjoy it. And now I leave you with this thought from Doctor Martin Luther King. Ladies and gentlemen, Americans must learn to live together as brothers and sisters, or we will surely perish together is fools. Truer words were never spoken. Thank you for listening to America's Health Care Advocate broadcasting here on the HIA Radio Network. Coast to coast across USA.

00;37;21;22 - 00;37;28;20

Cary Hall

Goodbye America.

00;37;28;22 - 00;37;33;05

Cary Hall

Is new.